Acting Commons^™

Sarcophagus

Taylor Theatre Playbills

The playbill for Taylor University’s Fall 1991 performance of Sarcophagus by Vladimir Gubaryev.

Sarcophagus is an exploration of the Chernobyl Disaster, a catastrophic nuclear accident that occurred on 26 April 1986 at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant near the city of Pripyat, Ukraine. The play takes place in the Institute of Radiation Safety, near Moscow, immediately following the Chernobyl Nuclear Disaster.

Rumors, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

1991-1992 Season

Rumors, is a madcap, slamming door farce set in a large home located just outside of New York in the year 1988. The characters are arriving as guests at a 10th Anniversary Dinner. The first couple to arrive discovers that one of their hosts (Charley) has apparently attempted suicide...unsuccessfully. Charley’s wife, Myra, is nowhere to be found and neither are the servants. Through the course of the show, the audience never meets Charley or Myra. As more guests arrive, there are cover-ups, deceptions, mistaken identities, and a lot of huge laughs.

1991 - 1992 Season Brochure, Otterbein University Department Of Theatre And Dance

Theatre and Dance Annual Brochures

Annual promotional piece of the upcoming season's shows.

Uncommon Women & Others, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

1990-1991 Season

Uncommon Women and Others (1977), is the first play by noted 20th-century American playwright Wendy Wasserstein. Alumnae of Mount Holyoke College (Wasserstein's alma mater) meet for lunch one day in 1978 and talk about their time together in college. The play is thus a series of flashbacks to the 1972-1973 school year as seven seniors and one freshman try to "discover themselves" in the wake of second-wave feminism.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncommon_Women_and_Others

Man Of La Mancha, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

1990-1991 Season

Man of La Mancha is a 1965 musical with a book by Dale Wasserman, lyrics by Joe Darion, and music by Mitch Leigh. It tells the story of the "mad" knight Don Quixote as a play within a play, performed by Cervantes and his fellow prisoners as he awaits a hearing with the Spanish Inquisition. The work is not and does not pretend to be a faithful rendition of either Cervantes' life or of Don Quixote.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man_of_La_Mancha#Synopsis

Much Ado About Nothing, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

1990-1991 Season

Much Ado About Nothing is a comedy by William Shakespeare thought to have been written in 1598 and 1599, as Shakespeare was approaching the middle of his career. The play was included in the First Folio, published in 1623.

By means of "noting" (which, in Shakespeare's day, sounded similar to "nothing" as in the play's title, and which means gossip, rumour, and overhearing), Benedick and Beatrice are tricked into confessing their love for each other, and Claudio is tricked into rejecting Hero at the altar on the erroneous belief that she has been unfaithful. At the end, Benedick and Beatrice …

Whose Life Is It Anyway?

Taylor Theatre Playbills

The playbill for Taylor University’s Spring 1991 performance of Whose Life is it Anyway? by Brian Clark.

Whose Life is it Anyway? tells the story of Claire Harrison, a woman who is left paralyzed from the head down after a car accident and battles with the doctors to be taken off life support.

Good, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

1990-1991 Season

Good is an award-winning play in two acts written by British playwright Cecil Philip Taylor. Good has been described as the definitive piece written about the Holocaust in the English-speaking theatre. Set in pre-war Germany, it shows how John Halder, a liberal-minded professor whose best friend is the Jewish Maurice, could not only be seduced into joining the Nazism, but step-by-rationalised-step end up embracing the final solution justifying to his conscience the terrible actions.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Good_(play)

Charlotte's Web, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

1990-1991 Season

This exciting, musical version of Charlotte's Web brings a new dimension to E.B. White’s beloved classic. All the enchanting characters are here: Wilbur, the irresistible pig who desperately wants to avoid the butcher; Fern, a girl who understands what animals say to each other; Templeton, the gluttonous rat who can occasionally be talked into a good deed; the Zuckerman family; the Arables; and, most of all, the extraordinary spider Charlotte who proves to be a “true friend and a good writer.” With music and lyrics by Charles Strouse (Annie, ‘Bye, ‘Bye Birdie) and book by Joseph Robinette (national award-winning children’s …

A Streetcar Named Desire, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

1990-1991 Season

This celebrated American drama, which earned both the Pulitzer Prize and the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award, ranks as one of the greatest in our theatre. A savagely arresting drama. Streetcar is one the those rare plays familiar to all. Primitive, graceful and poetic, the play reveals to the very depths the character of Blanche DuBois, a woman whose life has been undermined by romantic illusions, which lead her to reject so far as possible the realities of life with which she is faced and which she consistently ignores. The pressure brought to bear upon her by her sister, …

Fool For Love, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

1989-1990 Season

Fool for Love is a play written by American playwright and actor Sam Shepard. The play focuses on May and Eddie, former lovers who have met again in a motel in the desert. The play premiered in 1983 at the Magic Theatre in San Francisco, where Shepard was the playwright-in-residence. The play was a finalist for the 1984 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fool_for_Love_(play)

Evita, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

1989-1990 Season

Evita is a musical with music by Andrew Lloyd Webber and lyrics and book by Tim Rice. It concentrates on the life of Argentine political leader Eva Perón, the second wife of Argentine president Juan Perón. The story follows Evita's early life, rise to power, charity work, and eventual death.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evita_(musical)

She Stoops To Conquer, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

1989-1990 Season

A round of mistaken identities stir up the hilarity for this quick-paced, rowdy farce that has kept audiences laughing for more than two centuries. Tony Lumpkin directs two lost-in-the-night Londoners to the squire's country home they search for--but impishly tells them it's an inn. Since Marlow, one of the young men, seeks to court the squire's daughter, it results in pickle after delicious pickle as he treats the squire (his prospective father-in-law) and the squire's daughter (his future wife) as an innkeeper and barmaid. The squire is perplexed at being ordered about like a servant, and Marlow indignant at the …

Stepping Out, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

1989-1990 Season

Stepping Out is a play written by Richard Harris in 1984. The play concerns eight individuals from disparate backgrounds and with differing motivations who attend the same weekly tap dancing class in a dingy North London church hall. Despite the students at first treating the classes as social occasions, and showing little co-ordination, they later develop a level of skill and cohesiveness. The dance routines are the background for the focus of the play, the relationship and interaction of different people.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stepping_Out_(play)

Cinderella, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

1989-1990 Season

One of the most universal and beloved fairy tales of all time. The story of a beautiful young girl forced by her stepmother and jealous stepsisters to keep house and sleep in the cinders. She finally marries a handsome prince and lives happily ever after with the help of some friendly mice, a fairy godmother and a glass slipper. To be presented in a fully staged version with music.

The Barretts

Taylor Theatre Playbills

The playbill for Taylor University’s Fall 1989 performance of The Barretts by Marjorie Carleton.

The Barretts is based on the romance between Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett, and her father’s overbearing control over his family and refusal to allow them to marry.

A later production by Taylor Theatre, The Victorians, was produced later that year as a reader’s theatre featuring various Victorian poets and writers including Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett Browning.

Present Laughter, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

1989-1990 Season

The plot follows a few days in the life of the successful and self-obsessed light comedy actor Garry Essendine as he prepares to travel for a touring commitment in Africa. Amid a series of events bordering on farce, Garry has to deal with women who want to seduce him, placate both his long-suffering secretary and his estranged wife, cope with a crazed young playwright, and overcome his impending mid-life crisis (since he has recently turned forty). The story was described by Coward as "a series of semi-autobiographical pyrotechnics".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Present_Laughter

1989 - 1990 Season Brochure, Otterbein University Department Of Theatre And Dance

Theatre and Dance Annual Brochures

Annual promotional piece of the upcoming season's shows.

Children Of A Lesser God, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

1988-1989 Season

This play focuses on the conflicted professional and romantic relationship between Sarah Norman, a deaf former student, and her teacher, James Leeds. The play, which premiered at the Mark Taper Forum, was produced on Broadway in 1980 and in the West End in 1981. The play won the 1980 Tony Award for Best Play.

Romeo And Juliet, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

1988-1989 Season

Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare early in his career about two young star-crossed lovers whose deaths ultimately reconcile their feuding families. It was among Shakespeare's most popular plays during his lifetime and along with Hamlet, is one of his most frequently performed plays. Today, the title characters are regarded as archetypal young lovers.

Romeo and Juliet. (2017, July 20). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 21:01, August 31, 2017, from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Romeo_and_Juliet&oldid=791420844

Quilters, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

1988-1989 Season

In the American West, a pioneer woman, Sarah, and six women, who are called her daughters, face frontier life. Rather than a straightforward story line, the musical is presented as a series of short tales and tableaux matched with musical numbers, each presenting an aspect of frontier life or womanhood. The patches or blocks show "girlhood, marriage, childbirth, spinsterhood, twisters, fire, illness and death."^[9] The patches are ultimately put together to form one dramatic tableau. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quilters_(musical)

Alice In Wonderland, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

1988-1989 Season

Alice the protagonist must find her way through this strange place called "Wonderland". She is a 7 year old girl who while sitting with her sisters falls asleep and enters this world by falling down a rabbit hole. She follows the White Rabbit who leads her on many adventures.

Musical Comedy Murders Of 1940, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

1988-1989 Season

The creative team responsible for a recent Broadway flop (in which three chorus girls were murdered by the mysterious "Stage Door Slasher") assemble for a backer's audition of their new show at the Westchester estate of a wealthy "angel." The house is replete with sliding panels, secret passageways and a German maid who is apparently four different people- all of which figure diabolically in the comic mayhem that follows when the infamous "slasher" makes his reappearance and strikes again.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Musical_Comedy_Murders_of_1940

To Gillian On Her 37th Birthday, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

1987-1988 Season

David loves his wife, Gillian. Unfortunately, she died two years ago. David deals with his grief by continuing his romance with Gillian during walks with her "ghost" on the beach at night. While David lives in the past, other family problems crop up in the present in the real world. Esther and Paul come for a visit to try to help Rachel. She has lost her mother and needs her father to snap back into the real world and help her. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/To_Gillian_on_Her_37th_Birthday_(play)

Amadeus

Taylor Theatre Playbills

The playbill for Taylor University’s Spring 1988 performance of Amadeus by Peter Shaffer.

Amadeus is a fictionalized account of the lives of the composers Antonio Salieri and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

The Prime Of Miss Jean Brodie, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

1987-1988 Season

Jean Brodie is a free-spirited teacher at a Scottish girls' school during the 1930s. She encourages her young pupils to embrace romantic ideals, educating them about love and art rather than hard facts. However, her controversial teaching philosophy draws the ire of the school's headmistress, Miss Mackey, and, as Miss Brodie becomes entangled in a love triangle, her behavior towards her favorite students becomes increasingly manipulative.

A Flea In Her Ear, Otterbein Universitytheatre And Dance Department

1987-1988 Season

Raymonde Chandebise, after years of wedded bliss, begins to doubt the fidelity of her husband, Victor Emmanuel, who has suddenly become sexually inactive. Raymonde is unaware that his behaviour is due to a nervous condition. She confides her doubts to her old friend Lucienne, who suggests a trick to test him. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Flea_in_Her_Ear

Robin Hood, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

1987-1988 Season

Robin Hood is a legendary heroic outlaw originally depicted in English folklore and subsequently featured in literature and film. According to legend, he was a highly skilled archer and swordsman. In some versions of the legend he is depicted as being of noble birth, and having fought in the Crusades before returning to England to find his lands have been taken by the Sheriff. In other versions this is not the case and he is instead born into the yeoman class. Traditionally depicted dressed in Lincoln green, he is said to have robbed from the rich and …

Up The Down Staircase

Taylor Theatre Playbills

The playbill for Taylor University’s Fall 1987 performance of Up the Down Staircase by Bel Kaufman.

Up the Down Staircase tells the story of an idealistic English teacher in an inner-city high school who hopes to develop a love for classic literature in her students. The play follows her struggles with students, fellow teachers, and the bureaucracy and how she touches the lives of her students.

Brighton Beach Memoirs, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

1987-1988 Season

Brighton Beach Memoirs is a semi-autobiographical play by Neil Simon, the first chapter in what is known as his Eugene trilogy. It precedes Biloxi Blues and Broadway Bound.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brighton_Beach_Memoirs